EP1236249B1 - Laser a disque fin a modes bloques - Google Patents

Laser a disque fin a modes bloques Download PDF

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Publication number
EP1236249B1
EP1236249B1 EP00977340A EP00977340A EP1236249B1 EP 1236249 B1 EP1236249 B1 EP 1236249B1 EP 00977340 A EP00977340 A EP 00977340A EP 00977340 A EP00977340 A EP 00977340A EP 1236249 B1 EP1236249 B1 EP 1236249B1
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Prior art keywords
laser
gain medium
electromagnetic radiation
optical resonator
thin
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German (de)
English (en)
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EP1236249A1 (fr
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Rüdiger PASCHOTTA
Jürg AUS DER AU
Gabriel J. SPÜHLER
Ursula Keller
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Time Bandwidth Products AG
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Time Bandwidth Products AG
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Priority claimed from US09/528,788 external-priority patent/US6834064B1/en
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    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S3/00—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range
    • H01S3/05—Construction or shape of optical resonators; Accommodation of active medium therein; Shape of active medium
    • H01S3/06—Construction or shape of active medium
    • H01S3/0602—Crystal lasers or glass lasers
    • H01S3/0604—Crystal lasers or glass lasers in the form of a plate or disc
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S3/00—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range
    • H01S3/05—Construction or shape of optical resonators; Accommodation of active medium therein; Shape of active medium
    • H01S3/08—Construction or shape of optical resonators or components thereof
    • H01S3/081—Construction or shape of optical resonators or components thereof comprising three or more reflectors
    • H01S3/0811—Construction or shape of optical resonators or components thereof comprising three or more reflectors incorporating a dispersive element, e.g. a prism for wavelength selection
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G02—OPTICS
    • G02F—OPTICAL DEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE CONTROL OF LIGHT BY MODIFICATION OF THE OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF THE MEDIA OF THE ELEMENTS INVOLVED THEREIN; NON-LINEAR OPTICS; FREQUENCY-CHANGING OF LIGHT; OPTICAL LOGIC ELEMENTS; OPTICAL ANALOGUE/DIGITAL CONVERTERS
    • G02F1/00—Devices or arrangements for the control of the intensity, colour, phase, polarisation or direction of light arriving from an independent light source, e.g. switching, gating or modulating; Non-linear optics
    • G02F1/35—Non-linear optics
    • G02F1/353—Frequency conversion, i.e. wherein a light beam is generated with frequency components different from those of the incident light beams
    • G02F1/3542—Multipass arrangements, i.e. arrangements to make light pass multiple times through the same element, e.g. using an enhancement cavity
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G02—OPTICS
    • G02F—OPTICAL DEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE CONTROL OF LIGHT BY MODIFICATION OF THE OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF THE MEDIA OF THE ELEMENTS INVOLVED THEREIN; NON-LINEAR OPTICS; FREQUENCY-CHANGING OF LIGHT; OPTICAL LOGIC ELEMENTS; OPTICAL ANALOGUE/DIGITAL CONVERTERS
    • G02F1/00—Devices or arrangements for the control of the intensity, colour, phase, polarisation or direction of light arriving from an independent light source, e.g. switching, gating or modulating; Non-linear optics
    • G02F1/35—Non-linear optics
    • G02F1/39—Non-linear optics for parametric generation or amplification of light, infrared or ultraviolet waves
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S3/00—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range
    • H01S3/02—Constructional details
    • H01S3/04—Arrangements for thermal management
    • H01S3/0405—Conductive cooling, e.g. by heat sinks or thermo-electric elements
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S3/00—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range
    • H01S3/05—Construction or shape of optical resonators; Accommodation of active medium therein; Shape of active medium
    • H01S3/08—Construction or shape of optical resonators or components thereof
    • H01S3/081—Construction or shape of optical resonators or components thereof comprising three or more reflectors
    • H01S3/0813—Configuration of resonator
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S3/00—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range
    • H01S3/10—Controlling the intensity, frequency, phase, polarisation or direction of the emitted radiation, e.g. switching, gating, modulating or demodulating
    • H01S3/11—Mode locking; Q-switching; Other giant-pulse techniques, e.g. cavity dumping
    • H01S3/1106—Mode locking
    • H01S3/1112—Passive mode locking
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S3/00—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range
    • H01S3/10—Controlling the intensity, frequency, phase, polarisation or direction of the emitted radiation, e.g. switching, gating, modulating or demodulating
    • H01S3/11—Mode locking; Q-switching; Other giant-pulse techniques, e.g. cavity dumping
    • H01S3/1106—Mode locking
    • H01S3/1112—Passive mode locking
    • H01S3/1115—Passive mode locking using intracavity saturable absorbers
    • H01S3/1118—Semiconductor saturable absorbers, e.g. semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors [SESAMs]; Solid-state saturable absorbers, e.g. carbon nanotube [CNT] based
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S3/00—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range
    • H01S3/14—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range characterised by the material used as the active medium
    • H01S3/16—Solid materials
    • H01S3/1601—Solid materials characterised by an active (lasing) ion
    • H01S3/1603—Solid materials characterised by an active (lasing) ion rare earth
    • H01S3/1618—Solid materials characterised by an active (lasing) ion rare earth ytterbium

Definitions

  • This invention relates to lasers and, more particularly, to mode-locked thin-disk lasers (also called active-mirror lasers) and to methods for generating pulsed laser radiation.
  • the invention also relates to an apparatus for emitting pulsed electromagnetic radiation.
  • Solid-state lasers comprise a rod made of a solid-state laser gain material.
  • the laser rod typically has the geometry of a cylinder, its longitudinal dimension (length) being larger than its transverse dimension (diameter).
  • the laser gain material is optically excited (pumped) by light, e.g., from laser diodes, impinging in transverse direction upon the cylindrical surface or in longitudinal direction upon the end faces.
  • the laser radiation is emitted in longitudinal direction and recirculated in a resonator cavity.
  • the laser rod must be cooled in order to avoid damage caused by heat absorbed from the pump light, especially in high-power lasers.
  • dissipated power is removed in transverse direction from the cylindrical surface of the laser rod. e.g., by a cooling liquid.
  • Such transverse cooling leads to a transverse temperature gradient inside the laser rod, i.e., the temperature in the middle (on or near the axis) of the rod is significantly higher than on the surface of the rod.
  • the refractive index of the gain material Due to the temperature dependence of the refractive index and to thermally induced mechanical stress, the refractive index of the gain material also varies in transverse direction and is generally higher in the middle of the rod. This results in "thermal lensing" or thermally induced birefringence which can cause a very detrimental degradation of the laser beam quality and efficiency losses.
  • Mode locking is a coherent superposition of longitudinal laser-cavity modes. It is forced by a temporal loss modulation which reduces the intracavity losses for a pulse within each cavity-roundtrip time. This results in an open net gain window, in which pulses only experience gain if they pass the modulator at a given time.
  • the loss modulation can be formed either actively or passively. Active mode locking is achieved, for instance, using an acousto-optic modulator as an intracavity element, which is synchronized to the cavity-roundtrip time.
  • ultra-short-pulse generation relies on passive mode-locking techniques, because only a passive shutter is fast enough to shape and stabilize ultrashort pulses.
  • Passive mode locking relies on a saturable absorber mechanism, which produces decreasing loss with increasing optical intensity. When the saturable-absorber parameters are correctly adjusted for the laser system, stable and self-starting mode locking is obtained.
  • KLM Kerr-lens mode locking
  • SESAMs semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors
  • SESAMs semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors
  • JSTQE Quantum Electronics
  • a SESAM is a nonlinear mirror inserted inside the laser cavity. Its reflectivity is higher at higher light intensities due to absorption bleaching obtained by using semiconductors as the nonlinear material.
  • a SESAM typically consists of a bottom mirror, the saturable absorber structure and, optionally, an additional antireflection or reflecting coating on the top surface.
  • German patent application No. 199 07 722 discloses a thin-disk laser mode locked by a Kerr-lens mode-locking mechanism, but points out that a SESAM would be unsuitable for a high-power thin-disk laser.
  • a passive mode-locking device especially a SESAM
  • Q-switching instabilities An unwanted tendency for Q-switched mode locking (QML) is introduced by a saturable absorber in the laser cavity. This results from the fact that e.g. some increase of the intracavity pulse energy over the stationary value (caused maybe by a pump fluctuation) leads to stronger bleaching of the absorber and thus an increased net gain, which in effect causes an exponential growth of the pulse energy. This growth is suppressed if gain saturation limits the pulse energy in time.
  • Solid-state lasers materials and Yb:YAG in particular
  • the second problem is possible damage of the saturable absorber. This can be caused either by over-heating, or by non-thermal effects at high optical intensities, particularly if Q-switching instabilities lead to the generation of high-energy pulses. These damage problems can be critical in passively mode-locked high-power lasers, but in this document we show that they can be solved for thin-disk Yb:YAG lasers and do not prevent scaling to very high average powers.
  • the laser shall have a good beam quality (e.g., emit the fundamental TEM 00 mode), a high efficiency (e.g., 25 % or more), and emit short pulses (in the picosecond range or shorter) with a high average power (e.g., 10 W and higher) and/or high pulse energy (e.g., 0.5 ⁇ J or more).
  • a good beam quality e.g., emit the fundamental TEM 00 mode
  • a high efficiency e.g., 25 % or more
  • emit short pulses in the picosecond range or shorter
  • a high average power e.g. 10 W and higher
  • high pulse energy e.g., 0.5 ⁇ J or more
  • the laser for emitting pulsed electromagnetic radiation according to the invention is defined in claim 1.
  • the method for generating pulsed laser radiation according to the invention is defined in claim 22.
  • the laser according to the invention uses the thin-disk laser concept with its longitudinal cooling geometry. This has the advantage that thermal-lensing effects are reduced or suppressed.
  • the absorption of the pump radiation can be made efficient by performing multiple passes of the pump radiation in the disk.
  • the disk is preferably wedge-shaped.
  • the thin disk is preferably made of Yb:YAG: this laser gain material offers a very good efficiency of typically 50 % and allows the generation of very short pulses with durations even below 1 ps.
  • Other possible laser gain materials are. e.g., Nd:YAG, Nd:YVO 4 (neodymium vanadate), or semiconductors.
  • a preferred embodiment of the laser according to the invention comprises a SESAM as the passive mode-locking means.
  • a SESAM is a compact and simple device for mode locking, and allows for very short pulses.
  • SESAM stands here for any other saturable absorber structures, which have sometimes been termed A-FPSA (Opt. Lett. 17, 505, 1992), SBR (Opt. Lett. 20, 1406, 1995, D-SAM (Opt. Lett. 21, 486, 1996), semiconductor doped dielectric layers (Opt. Lett. 23, 1766, 1998), or colored glass filters (Appl. Phys. Lett. 57, 229, (1990), for example.
  • QML Q-switched mode locking
  • a suitably designed thin disk laser head (with a small laser-mode size in the gain medium) strongly reduces the QML tendency via measure (a), so that a strong SESAM saturation (measure (c)) is not necessarily required.
  • the problem of possible thermal SESAM damage is eliminated based on the fact that heating depends on the absorbed intensity, not power. This is because the thickness of the SESAM is smaller than the laser-mode area on the device.
  • the thermal load on the SESAM can be reduced by using a "low-finesse" design with a low saturation fluence F sat , which allows to use a larger mode area. Typical saturation fluences which do not cause any damages are in the range of 100 ⁇ J/cm 2 .
  • Non-thermal SESAM damage is avoided by not operating the SESAM far above the critical saturation fluence.
  • a passively mode-locked thin-disk laser may also be deliberately operated in the Q-switched mode-locked regime, where the maximum achieved pulse energy is considerably increased.
  • a SESAM with higher modulation depth is used, or possibly a combination of several SESAMs (e.g., to distribute the heat load).
  • Another possibility is to incorporate a Pockels cell and polarizing optics for cavity dumping. This allows to extract pulses with energies which are only slightly lower than the intracavity pulse energy, which can be very high in a mode-locked thin-disk laser.
  • Such a laser is not part of the invention as claimed.
  • the laser according to the invention offers the important advantage of power scalability.
  • q 2 for doubling the output power
  • the tendencies for thermal lensing, Q-switching instabilities and SESAM damage do not increase, but remain approximately constant. In other words, the problems do not grow when scaling up power.
  • the temperature excursion in the laser disk is not increased because the pump intensity remains unchanged.
  • Kerr lens mode locking may be applied in the laser according to the invention.
  • KLM Kerr lens mode locking
  • both mode-locking techniques could be used in combination.
  • the Kerr effect e.g., in a glass plate or in the laser gain medium, is strong for high intracavity powers, which are achievable by the power scaling explained above.
  • a glass plate placed in the resonator cavity at an angle near the Brewster angle with respect to the laser-beam axis is used to enforce a linear polarization of the laser radiation.
  • the same plate or another plate at a different location in the resonator cavity can be used as a nonlinear (Kerr) medium to exploit the effect of Kerr lens mode locking instead of or in addition to the action of the saturable absorber.
  • measures for introducing negative dispersion or dispersion compensation are preferably taken.
  • examples for dispersion-compensating means to be inserted into a laser-resonator cavity are:
  • SHB spatial hole burning
  • the above-mentioned instability caused by SHB can be removed or substantially reduced as follows.
  • the laser cavity is designed such that the laser beam hits the thin-disk gain medium not only twice but four times during each round-trip in the standing-wave cavity. Two bounces are made with a certain angle with respect to normal incidence, and the other two bounces with a slightly different angle. The difference of angles has the effect that the periods of the induced standing-wave patterns in the gain medium are different.
  • the angles of incidence should be chosen such that the resulting standing-wave pattern is largely smeared out near the side of the crystal opposite to the one with the reflective coating.
  • the period of the induced gain grating is ⁇ / 2 ⁇ n cos ⁇ , where ⁇ is the vacuum wavelength, n is the refractive index of the crystal, and ⁇ is the angle (in the crystal) relative to normal incidence.
  • a disadvantage of the described setup for reducing SHB-caused instabilities is that the laser beam experiences the effect of the thermal lens four times rather than two times per round-trip.
  • the thermal lens can be rather weak in a thin-disk laser head, and the doubled gain may be used to either lower the laser threshold or (with increased output coupler transmission) reduce the intracavity laser intensity.
  • the laser according to the invention is particularly well suited as a pump source for devices which do nonlinear frequency conversion, such as frequency doublers, sum frequency mixers, synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillators (OPOs), optical parametric amplifiers (OPAs), or optical parametric generators (OPGs).
  • OPOs allow to generate powerful femtosecond pulses at different wavelengths and with good wavelength tunability.
  • An OPO potentially yields much shorter (e.g., 10-20 times shorter) pulses than the pump pulses. This may lead to pulsed sources with several tens of Watts of average power and less than 100 fs pulse duration.
  • Optical parametric generators need quite high pump pulse energies, which can be provided by a laser according to the invention without further amplification, so that the extension of such a laser with a single nonlinear crystal for parametric generation can provide an efficient and powerful pulsed source which can possibly be tuned in a wide wavelength range.
  • an optical seed source may be used, effectively operating the crystal as an OPA.
  • An OPO consists of a similar cavity as a laser resonator cavity, but the gain in the OPO is generated in a nonlinear crystal (e.g., made of LBO or KTA) which is pumped with the pulses from the thin-disk laser.
  • the nonlinear crystal of the OPO generates a signal wave, for which the OPO cavity is resonant, and a corresponding idler wave. (Alternatively, the OPO cavity may be resonant for the idler wave.)
  • the circulating signal pulses are synchronized with the pump pulses.
  • the wavelengths of signal and idler waves are determined by phase matching, which depends on the refractive indices of the nonlinear crystal, i.e., on the material, its temperature and the propagation directions.
  • the laser according to the invention can be combined with an OPO and a frequency doubler, a sum frequency mixer, an optical parametric generator (OPG) or an optical parametric amplifier (OPA).
  • OPG optical parametric generator
  • OPA optical parametric amplifier
  • phase matching means that the phase velocities of pump wave and second-harmonic wave are made identical.
  • the laser according to the invention allows to generate very high peak powers, because of the high average power and also the much shorter pulse duration ( ⁇ 1 ps) compared to typical high-power mode-locked lasers (> 10 ps) known from the state of the art. Indeed the experiments with the laser according to the invention already resulted in well over 50 % conversion efficiency in a critically phase-matched LBO crystal for second-harmonic generation at room temperature, generating green light with as much as 8 W of average power. (For laser pulses with. e.g...
  • the laser according to the invention is very suitable as a pump source for efficient nonlinear wavelength converters based on critical phase matching (rather than noncritical phase matching).
  • critical phase matching rather than noncritical phase matching.
  • the nonlinear crystal can be operated at constant temperature (possibly not even requiring active temperature control), which is particularly important for tunable parametric devices (e.g., optical parametric oscillators or optical parametric generators) because very fast tuning of the output wavelengths in wide ranges is then possible by changing the propagation angle in the nonlinear crystal rather than the crystal temperature, which inherently needs much more time to be changed.
  • Figure 1 shows a schematic, simplified illustration of a laser according to the invention.
  • the laser comprises an optical resonator 1 delimited by a first reflective element 11 and a second reflective element 12 for reflecting laser radiation 10.
  • the first reflective element 11 is a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) device 4 for passively mode locking the laser; it is described below with reference to Fig. 3.
  • the first reflective element 11 could be, e.g., a dielectric mirror.
  • the second reflective element 12 may be, e.g., a partially reflecting outcoupling dielectric and/or metallic mirror.
  • the total length of the geometric path in the resonator 1 in this example is 10 m, corresponding to a repetition rate of 15 MHz.
  • the lengths of the portions between the folding mirrors 13.1-13.8 may be calculated by comparison with Fig. 1 since Fig. 1 shows the lengths of the portions in a correct scale.
  • many other laser resonator designs are possible for the laser according to the invention (cf. Fig. 7).
  • a thin-disk laser head comprising a thin-disk solid-state laser gain medium 2 mounted on cooling means 3 is placed inside the optical resonator 1.
  • the thin-disk laser head simultaneously acts as a folding mirror 13.6 and is described below with reference to Fig. 2.
  • the thin-disk laser head could be used as an end mirror 11 in the resonator cavity 1.
  • means for exciting the laser gain medium 2 are not drawn in Fig. 1 and are discussed with reference to Fig. 2.
  • the laser of Fig. 1 still further comprises a Gires-Tournois interferometer (GTI) 5 as a dispersion-compensating means.
  • the GTI 5 simultaneously acts as a folding mirror 13.3.
  • An optional glass plate 6 is placed inside the optical resonator 1 and oriented such that the angle of incidence of the laser beam 10 is equal to the Brewster angle ⁇ B in order to obtain a linear polarization of the laser beam 10.
  • the glass plate 6 could simultaneously be used for Kerr lens mode locking (KLM).
  • KLM Kerr lens mode locking
  • the Kerr effect needed for KLM could be provided by an additional plate, by the laser gain medium 2 or by the GTI 5.
  • FIG. 2 shows a schematic cross-section through a thin-disk laser head usable for a preferred embodiment of the laser according to the invention.
  • a laser gain medium 2 has the shape of a thin disk and is preferably an Yb:YAG crystal with a thickness of about 0.2 mm.
  • the thin disk 2 is mounted via a rear surface 22 on a cooling element 3, e.g., a water-cooled copper element. Between the thin disk 2 and the cooling element 3, there may be an indium foil 23 for mounting the thin disk 2 on the cooling element 3, for ensuring a good thermal contact between the thin disk 2 and the cooling element 3, and for enhancing the reflectivity of the rear surface 22.
  • the thin disk 2 is preferably slightly wedge-shaped.
  • the laser gain medium 2 is preferably optically pumped by light 20 emitted, e.g., by a laser diode (not drawn) and impinging on a front surface 21 of the thin disk 2.
  • the front surface 21 of the thin disk 2 is preferably provided with an antireflection (AR) coating, the rear surface 22 with a high-reflection (HR) coating.
  • AR antireflection
  • HR high-reflection
  • a laser beam 10 impinging under a small angle of incidence on the front surface 21 of the thin disk 2 is amplified and reflected by the thin disk 2.
  • the angle of incidence could be zero (normal incidence).
  • FIG 3 shows a schematic cross-section through a SESAM 4 used in a preferred embodiment of the laser according to the invention.
  • a laser beam which is reflected by the SESAM 4 is sketched as an arrow 10.
  • the SESAM 4 consists of a bottom mirror 41 and a saturable absorber structure 42.
  • the bottom mirror 41 is typically a Bragg mirror, i.e., a stack of. e.g., 50 semiconductor and/or dielectric quarter-wave layers 43.1. 43.2, ..., 44.1, 44.2, ... on a substrate (not shown), wherein low-refractive-index layers 43.1, 43.2.... and high-refractive-index layers 44.1, 44.2, ... alternate with each other.
  • the saturable absorber structure 42 comprises a first ALAs structure 45 with a thickness of 85 nm, an InGaA.s absorber layer 46 with a thickness of 8 nm, and a GaAs spacer layer 47 with a thickness of 71 nm.
  • a person skilled in the art is able to design other SESAMs 4.
  • Figure 6 shows a schematic, simplified illustration of an apparatus for optical frequency conversion according to the invention. It comprises a thin-disk laser according to the invention (left-hand side of Fig. 6) and a synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator (OPO; right-hand side of Fig. 6).
  • the thin-disk laser may be, e.g., the one shown in Fig. 1, with a resonator cavity 1 comprising a thin-disk gain medium 2 mounted on a cooling element 3, and a SESAM 4.
  • An exemplified embodiment of an OPO cavity 8 is delimited by a first reflective element 81 and a second reflective element 82, and is folded by two, e.g., curved, folding mirrors 83.1, 83.2.
  • the nonlinear element 9 emits a signal wave with a signal wavelength of, e.g., 1900 nm, and an idler wave with an idler wavelength of, e.g., 2250 nm; the common path of both signal and idler wave is referenced by the number 80.
  • the mirrors 81 and 83.1, 83.2 have a high reflectivity for the signal wave and a low reflectivity for the idler wave.
  • the path length in the OPO resonator cavity 8 is the same as in the laser resonator cavity 1, e.g., 10 m.
  • the laser radiation is incoupled into the OPO resonator cavity 8 by means of, e.g., a mirror 71 and a lens 72.
  • a mirror 71 and a lens 72 e.g., a lens 72.
  • many other OPO resonator designs are possible for the apparatus according to the invention.
  • Figure 7 is a schematic top plan view of an embodiment of a laser according to the invention wherein SHB-caused instabilities are eliminated or substantially reduced. This embodiment is especially well suited for the generation of longer pulses.
  • the reduction of instabilities is achieved by a design of the laser resonator 1 wherein the laser beam 10 hits the thin-disk gain medium 2 not only twice (as, e.g., in the embodiment of Fig. 1) but four times during each round-trip in the standing-wave resonator.
  • the difference of angles has the effect that the periods of the induced standing-wave patterns in the gain medium 2 are different.
  • the angles ⁇ 1 ' and ⁇ 2 ' in Fig. 7 are the angles of incidence in air and are thus not identical with the angles ⁇ 1 and ⁇ 2 in Eq. (2) which are the angles of incidence in the laser gain medium 2.
  • the angles ⁇ 1 and ⁇ 1 ' or the angles ⁇ 2 and ⁇ 2 ', respectively, are related by Snell's law of refraction.
  • FIG. 8 A more detailed schematic top view of a set up which allows pulse duration tuning is shown in Figure 8.
  • the laser resonator 1 is again designed such that the laser beam 10 hits the thin-disk gain medium four times during each round-trip in the standing-wave resonator.
  • the resonator is designed such that it is largely symmetric with respect to the folding mirror 13.1. For this reason, the stability range of the cavity with respect to thermal lensing is as large as for a simple cavity comprising only one double pass through the disk per round trip.
  • the Gires-Tournois interferometer (GTI) 5 serves as a dispersion-compensating means for soliton mode locking.
  • the GTI here consists of a high reflector and a fused quartz plate (anti-reflection coated on one side) with a piezo-controlled air gap.
  • the pulse duration in this setup, can be tuned simply by varying the voltage of the piezo that controls this air gap. In this way, the pulse duration range can be expanded, e.g. to durations between 0,5 ps and 100 ps, or, as experimentally demonstrated, to durations between 3,3 ps and 89 ps in a setup with an etalon 14 or between 0,83 ps and 1.5 ps without an etalon.
  • the upper limit is e.g. not determined by SHB but by other factors such as the recovery time of the SESAM etc.

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  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Electromagnetism (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Plasma & Fusion (AREA)
  • Optics & Photonics (AREA)
  • Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
  • Crystallography & Structural Chemistry (AREA)
  • Lasers (AREA)
  • Optical Head (AREA)

Claims (36)

  1. Laser verrouillé passivement en mode pour émettre un rayonnement électromagnétique pulsé, ledit laser comprenant :
    une cavité optique (1),
    un milieu solide (2) amplificateur laser placé à l'intérieur de ladite cavité optique, ledit milieu amplificateur laser présentant deux surfaces d'extrémité (21, 22) et présentant la forme d'une mince plaque ou d'une mince couche dotée de deux surfaces d'extrémité, l'extension desdites surfaces d'extrémité étant plus grande que l'épaisseur de ladite plaque ou de ladite couche mesurée essentiellement dans une direction perpendiculaire à l'une desdites surfaces d'extrémité, au moins l'une desdites surfaces d'extrémité (22) comprenant une surface de refroidissement,
    un moyen (3) qui refroidit ledit milieu d'amplificateur laser par l'intermédiaire de ladite surface de refroidissement,
    un moyen qui excite ledit milieu amplificateur laser pour qu'il émette un rayonnement électromagnétique et
    un moyen (4) de verrouillage passif du mode, qui comprend un absorbeur saturable placé à l'intérieur de ladite cavité optique.
  2. Laser selon la revendication 1, dans lequel ledit milieu (2) amplificateur laser, ledit absorbeur saturable (4), ladite cavité optique (1) et ledit moyen d'excitation dudit milieu amplificateur laser sont conçus de manière à empêcher un fonctionnement en mode verrouillé à commutation Q.
  3. Laser selon les revendications 1 ou 2, dans lequel au moins l'une desdites surfaces d'extrémité (21, 22) est dotée d'un moyen qui réfléchit ledit rayonnement électromagnétique émis.
  4. Laser selon la revendication 3, dans lequel ledit moyen réfléchissant comprend un revêtement diélectrique.
  5. Laser selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes, dans lequel ledit milieu (2) amplificateur laser est sélectionné dans l'ensemble constitué de Yb:UAG, Nd:YAG, Nd:YVO4 et un matériau semi-conducteur.
  6. Laser selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes, dans lequel ledit milieu (2) amplificateur laser a une épaisseur telle que l'effet du brûlage spatial des trous assiste la création de courtes impulsions.
  7. Laser selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes, dans lequel ladite cavité optique (1) est conçue de telle sorte que ledit rayonnement électromagnétique émis vienne frapper ledit milieu amplificateur en disque mince deux fois pendant chaque recirculation dans ladite cavité optique.
  8. Laser selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes, dans lequel ladite cavité optique (1) est conçue de telle sorte que ledit rayonnement électromagnétique émis vienne frapper ledit milieu amplificateur en disque mince plus de deux fois pendant chaque recirculation dans ladite cavité optique, de telle sorte qu'au moins deux frappes sous différents angles d'incidence aient lieu de manière à effacer au moins en partie un motif d'onde stationnaire dans ledit milieu (2) amplificateur en disque mince.
  9. Laser selon la revendication 1, dans lequel ledit absorbeur saturable est un dispositif semi-conducteur de miroir d'absorbeur saturable.
  10. Laser selon l'une quelconque des revendications 1 à 9, dans lequel ledit moyen de verrouillage passif en mode comprend un moyen de verrouillage en mode à lentille de Kerr.
  11. Laser selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes, qui comprend en outre à l'intérieur de ladite cavité optique un moyen pour amener une dispersion négative ou une compensation de la dispersion.
  12. Laser selon la revendication 11, dans lequel ledit moyen de compensation de la dispersion est un interféromètre de Gires-Tournois (5), une paire de grilles de diffraction, une paire de prismes ou un miroir dispersif.
  13. Laser selon la revendication 12, dans lequel ledit interféromètre de Gires-Tournois (5) comprend un interstice d'air contrôlé par des moyens piézo-électriques.
  14. Laser selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes, dans lequel ledit résonateur optique (1) a une longueur telle qu'il émet un rayonnement électromagnétique pulsé à une cadence de répétition inférieure à 100 MHz et de préférence inférieure à 50 MHz.
  15. Laser selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes, dans lequel ledit moyen d'excitation comprend une source de rayonnement électromagnétique.
  16. Laser selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes, qui comprend en outre un moyen de déchargement de la cavité.
  17. Laser selon la revendication 1 ou l'une quelconque des revendications 3 à 16, qui comprend en outre un moyen de verrouillage de mode à commutation Q.
  18. Appareil qui émet un rayonnement électromagnétique pulsé, ledit appareil comprend le laser selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes et un moyen de conversion optique non linéaire de la fréquence du rayonnement électromagnétique émis par ledit laser.
  19. Appareil selon la revendication 18, dans lequel ledit moyen de conversion de fréquence comprend un oscillateur paramétrique optique (OPO), un doubleur de fréquence, un mélangeur de fréquence par addition, un générateur paramétrique optique (OPG) et/ou un amplificateur paramétrique optique (OPA).
  20. Appareil selon la revendication 19, dans lequel ledit moyen de conversion de fréquence comprend un oscillateur paramétrique optique (OPO) à pompage synchrone et un doubleur de fréquence, un mélangeur de fréquence par addition, un générateur paramétrique optique (OPG) et un amplificateur paramétrique optique (OPA) pour créer une lumière pulsée rouge, verte ou bleue.
  21. Appareil selon l'une quelconque des revendications 18 à 20, dans lequel ledit moyen de conversion de fréquence optiquement non linéaire comprend un cristal optiquement non linéaire (9) dont les axes principaux sont définis, ledit appareil comprend en outre un moyen pour ajuster l'angle de propagation dudit rayonnement laser dans ledit cristal par rapport auxdits axes principaux de manière à obtenir une mise en correspondance des phases dans l'opération de conversion non linéaire.
  22. Procédé de production d'un rayonnement laser pulsé, ledit procédé comprenant les étapes qui consistent à :
    exciter un milieu solide amplificateur laser (2) de telle sorte qu'il émette un rayonnement électromagnétique, ledit milieu amplificateur laser présentant deux surfaces d'extrémité (21, 22) et présentant la forme d'une mince plaque ou d'une mince couche dotée de deux surfaces d'extrémité, l'extension desdites surfaces d'extrémité étant supérieure à l'épaisseur de ladite plaque ou de ladite couche mesurée essentiellement dans une direction perpendiculaire à l'une desdites surfaces d'extrémité, au moins l'une desdites surfaces d'extrémité comprenant une surface de refroidissement,
    refroidir ledit milieu amplificateur laser à l'aide de ladite surface d'extrémité,
    faire circuler ledit rayonnement électromagnétique dans une cavité optique et
    verrouiller passivement en mode ledit rayonnement électromagnétique en utilisant un absorbeur saturable.
  23. Procédé selon la revendication 22, dans lequel on utilise en outre un verrouillage de mode à lentille de Kerr pour renforcer l'effet de verrouillage de mode.
  24. Procédé selon les revendications 22 ou 23, dans lequel une dispersion négative est introduite à l'intérieur de ladite cavité optique.
  25. Procédé selon l'une quelconque des revendications 22 à 24, dans lequel ledit rayonnement électromagnétique pulsé est émis à une cadence de répétition inférieure à 100 MHz et de préférence inférieure à 50 MHz.
  26. Procédé selon l'une quelconque des revendications 22 à 25, dans lequel ledit milieu amplificateur laser est excité par un rayonnement électromagnétique.
  27. Procédé selon l'une quelconque des revendications 22 à 26, dans lequel ledit rayonnement électromagnétique est extrait de ladite cavité optique.
  28. Procédé selon l'une quelconque des revendications 22 à 27, dans lequel l'épaisseur du milieu amplificateur (2) est sélectionnée de telle sorte que l'effet du brûlage spatial des trous assiste la création de courtes impulsions.
  29. Procédé selon l'une quelconque des revendications 22 à 28, dans lequel ledit rayonnement électromagnétique émis vient frapper ledit milieu amplificateur en disque mince deux fois pendant chaque recirculation dans ladite cavité optique.
  30. Procédé selon l'une quelconque z Mmdes revendications 22 à 28, dans lequel ledit rayonnement électromagnétique émis vient frapper ledit milieu amplificateur en disque mince plus de deux fois pendant chaque recirculation dans ladite cavité optique, de telle sorte qu'au moins deux frappes sous différents angles d'incidence aient lieu de manière à effacer au moins en partie un motif d'onde stationnaire dans ledit milieu amplificateur en disque mince.
  31. Procédé selon l'une quelconque des revendications 22 à 30, dans lequel ledit rayonnement électromagnétique dans ladite cavité optique est verrouillé en mode par commutation Q de préférence en utilisant un absorbeur saturable qui présente une grande profondeur de modulation.
  32. Procédé de création d'un rayonnement électromagnétique pulsé, ledit procédé comprenant les étapes qui consistent à créer un rayonnement laser pulsé selon l'une quelconque des revendications 22 à 31 et en outre à convertir optiquement de manière non linéaire la fréquence dudit rayonnement laser.
  33. Procédé selon la revendication 32, dans lequel la fréquence dudit rayonnement laser est convertie par un oscillateur paramétrique optique (OPO), un doubleur de fréquence, un mélangeur de fréquence par addition, un générateur paramétrique optique (OPG) et/ou un amplificateur paramétrique optique (OPA).
  34. Procédé selon la revendication 33, dans lequel ledit rayonnement laser est converti par un oscillateur paramétrique optique (OPO) et un doubleur de fréquence, un mélangeur de fréquence par addition, un générateur paramétrique optique (OPG) et un amplificateur paramétrique optique (OPA) pour créer une lumière pulsée rouge, verte ou bleue.
  35. Procédé selon l'une quelconque des revendications 32 à 34, dans lequel la fréquence est convertie dans un cristal optiquement non linéaire (9) dont les axes principaux sont définis, ledit appareil comprend en outre un moyen pour ajuster l'angle de propagation dudit rayonnement laser dans ledit cristal par rapport auxdits axes principaux de manière à obtenir une mise en correspondance des phases dans l'opération de conversion non linéaire.
  36. Procédé de modification par un facteur d'échelle défini de la puissance de sortie du rayonnement électromagnétique pulsé créé par le procédé selon l'une quelconque des revendication 22 à 35, lequel procédé comprenant les étapes qui consistent à :
    modifier essentiellement dudit facteur d'échelle la puissance émise par ledit moyen d'excitation,
    modifier essentiellement par ledit facteur d'échelle la superficie éclairée par ledit rayonnement électromagnétique dans ledit milieu amplificateur laser et
    modifier essentiellement dudit facteur d'échelle la superficie éclairée par ledit rayonnement électromagnétique sur ledit moyen de verrouillage de mode.
EP00977340A 1999-12-08 2000-12-07 Laser a disque fin a modes bloques Expired - Lifetime EP1236249B1 (fr)

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Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US45633899A 1999-12-08 1999-12-08
US456338 1999-12-08
US09/528,788 US6834064B1 (en) 1999-12-08 2000-03-17 Mode-locked thin-disk laser
US528788 2000-03-17
PCT/CH2000/000649 WO2001043242A1 (fr) 1999-12-08 2000-12-07 Laser a disque fin a modes bloques

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EP1236249B1 true EP1236249B1 (fr) 2007-04-25

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WO2016096973A1 (fr) * 2014-12-17 2016-06-23 Trumpf Scientific Lasers Gmbh + Co. Kg Système amplificateur optiquement paramétrique
EP3549212A4 (fr) * 2016-12-04 2020-08-05 Newport Corporation Système laser verrouillé en mode haute puissance et procédés d'utilisation

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US6760356B2 (en) 2002-04-08 2004-07-06 The Regents Of The University Of California Application of Yb:YAG short pulse laser system
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DE10304401A1 (de) * 2003-01-30 2004-08-19 Forschungsgesellschaft für Strahlwerkzeuge -FGSW- mbH Lasersystem
WO2004114476A1 (fr) * 2003-06-20 2004-12-29 Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha Module d'excitation a laser solide
DE102004009593B4 (de) 2004-02-27 2006-11-23 Rofin-Sinar Laser Gmbh Festkörperlaser mit einer Kristallscheibe
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JP2008529282A (ja) * 2005-01-24 2008-07-31 リサーチ ファウンデイション オブ ザ シティー ユニヴァーシティ オブ ニューヨーク Ｃｒ３＋ドープレーザー材料及びレーザー並びに製造及び使用の方法
DE102006010301B3 (de) * 2006-03-07 2007-06-06 Batop Gmbh Anordnung zur Emission und zum Empfang von Terahertz Strahlung
FR2973957B1 (fr) 2011-04-05 2014-03-28 Centre Nat Rech Scient Oscillateur laser a fibre optique.
US8774238B2 (en) 2011-06-30 2014-07-08 Coherent, Inc. Mode-locked optically pumped semiconductor laser
US9318867B2 (en) 2011-10-07 2016-04-19 Max-Planck-Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Wissenschaften E.V. Laser device with Kerr effect based mode-locking and operation thereof
CN102545018B (zh) * 2012-02-21 2013-05-22 西安建筑科技大学 半导体激光器泵浦的低重复频率全固态皮秒蓝光激光器
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FR2997572B1 (fr) * 2012-10-31 2014-12-12 Thales Sa Dispositif d'amplification d'un laser impulsionnel a contraste temporel ameliore
EP3091620B1 (fr) * 2015-05-05 2021-04-21 Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e.V. Procédé et appareil à source d'impulsions laser pour générer des impulsions laser femtosecondes
DE102021003704A1 (de) * 2020-10-18 2022-04-21 Keming Du Multipass-Pumpanordnung für Verstärker und Multipass-Verstärker mit großen Mode-Querschnitt
EP4020077A1 (fr) * 2020-12-22 2022-06-29 Paul Scherrer Institut Système optique à puissance évolutive pour une conversion de fréquence non linéaire
CN114865441B (zh) * 2022-04-07 2025-04-04 华中科技大学 一种sesam锁模的高重复频率碟片激光器
CN120613632B (zh) * 2025-08-12 2025-10-17 长春理工大学 一种再生锁模激光器高重复频率调控方法及系统

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EP3549212A4 (fr) * 2016-12-04 2020-08-05 Newport Corporation Système laser verrouillé en mode haute puissance et procédés d'utilisation

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WO2001043242A1 (fr) 2001-06-14
ATE360904T1 (de) 2007-05-15
EP1236249A1 (fr) 2002-09-04
DE60034589T2 (de) 2007-12-27

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